Scanner listeners help get news out

Monday

Mar 11, 2013 at 6:00 AMMar 11, 2013 at 10:39 AM

By Scott J. Croteau TELEGRAM & GAZETTE STAFF

When Matthew Gregoire's head hits the pillow at night, the sound of police and fire scanners continues to fill his ears. He just happens to have two speakers in his pillow so he can hear the breaking news at all times.

The 42-year-old Millville man, a retired Woonsocket, R.I., firefighter, is one of several scanner followers who have learned the power of Twitter.

Under @ProvFireVideos, Mr. Gregoire has put out more than 21,000 tweets about fires in Central Massachusetts and beyond, crimes such as a murder in Worcester, and information on the lighter side.

“I tweet serious incidents, and then to break it up I have a little sense of humor,” Mr. Gregoire said. “I'll tweet important things, breaking news. I don't tie up Twitter with nonsense.”

Before Twitter and other social media networking websites existed, the information that shot across scanners usually stayed within the confines of someone's home or went to paging companies that sent out information to news organizations paying for the service. Some people who listen to scanners actually provide the information for the paging companies, but Twitter seems to have made that system obsolete.

See recent tweets below.

Joseph M. Tortorelli tweets under @ScanWorcester and runs www.scanworcester.com, which broadcasts Worcester Police and Worcester Fire Department feeds. He said he grew up near the Park Avenue fire station in Worcester, and the sound of firetrucks always had him wondering where they were going.

His parents had a scanner going, and his uncle fed Mr. Tortorelli's interest at a young age.

The 31-year-old Worcester resident has sound in his blood. His family has run Worcester Sound and Lights for decades. He always has a scanner in his vehicle.

With tweets about fire calls and other calls in Worcester, Mr. Tortorelli filters out the calls that won't draw interest. He doesn't feel the urge to put out tweets if nothing is happening.

“I don't feel like a slave. It is a labor of love,” said Mr. Tortorelli, who has more than 860 Twitter followers. “I enjoy sharing the information. To me it is quality over quantity.”

Leominster Firefighter Scott A. LaPrade, whose Twitter handle is @ScottLaPrade, has been chasing fires with his son for years. Both of them do a lot of fire photography, so listening to the scanners is a must. That's how they know where to go.

One day his fire chief told him about Twitter.

“I decided to give it a try,” the 50-year-old veteran firefighter said. “That's when I started realizing how much information is out there. Once you start putting out some good news, all of a sudden people who retweet it say, 'That is someone I want to follow.' ” All three men photograph fires or police calls when they can. Mr. Gregoire is also a freelance cameraman for Fox25 news.

“I have five scanners in my office. I have a scanner in my living room and a scanner on my bed nightstand,” Mr. Gregoire said. “In my truck I have four scanners and two handheld. They are always with me.”

These men tend to tweet a lot of fire information, starting with initial reports and often followed by more of the story. A sample result: “#Worcester engine 15 reporting food on the stove.” That was a tweet Mr. Gregoire put out Sunday afternoon.

“In my sleep I filter out the irrelevant calls,” Mr. Tortorelli said about his bedside fire scanner. “When three tones go off in Worcester, it is a big deal. That pretty much is a report of a working structure fire. I've been listening long enough that I know that if a call from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. in the afternoon or 5 to 7 p.m. comes, it is probably food on the stove.”

Having a solid pool of Twitter followers has Mr. Gregoire listening to the radio chatter a little more, he admits. As of Sunday, Mr. Gregoire had more than 2,780 Twitter followers.

The times his Twitter feed goes quiet — well, that is when Mr. Gregoire is on vacation.

People who are scanner enthusiasts follow trends in the business. When some police and fire agencies started to use trunked radio systems, it allowed more users to share different radio frequencies. Trunking scanners were created to capture those conversations.

Mr. Tortorelli said some public safety departments are now going digital, while others across the country are using encrypted radios. Encrypted systems cannot be heard by scanners. Digital scanners can hear the digital messages.

“I can't think of a reason why we shouldn't be able to listen,” Mr. Tortorelli said. “I strongly believe radio communications should be out in the public. It gives the public more respect for the work that they do.”

Police and fire logs show the same information, he said.

Mr. Gregoire believes some information should not be made public immediately. He understands that police have ongoing investigations. And in killings and fatal accidents, victims' names need to be confirmed before they are broadcast, he said.

“What I don't agree with is the encryption several departments are going to,” Mr. Gregoire said. “They should at least have a frequency that can be heard.”

Some departments in Rhode Island have all their transmissions encrypted, Mr. Gregoire said.

Worcester police use encrypted radios for the investigative divisions, those that handle drug investigations, gang surveillance and homicide investigations.

“We don't have a problem with citizens scanning police calls,” Police Chief Gary J. Gemme said. “We believe that there are certain times it is important to have encrypted radios so we can conduct criminal investigations.”

Police also have a concern that those under investigation may use scanners to listen in on police and try to discover if they are being investigated and learn the methods used by police. Daily police and fire calls for Worcester can be heard over scanners.

“The challenge today with social media, cell phones and all of the applications that are available is that everything becomes very transparent,” the chief said. “When it comes to day-to-day police operations that is a positive, but when you are conducting ongoing criminal investigations you do need that level of security that the encrypted radio offers.”

Contact Scott J. Croteau at scroteau@telegram.com. Follow him on Twitter@ScottCroteauTG

#Worcester engine 15 reporting food on the stove

— Matthew Gregoire (@ProvFireVideos) March 10, 2013

Fire under control. FIU to the scene. Reported to be a box of hardwood floor dust.